Kocharian Doesn’t Share OSCE’s Optimism over Karabakh Conflict

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Finding a final solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict before next year’s presidential election in Armenia is unlikely, President Robert Kocharian told journalists today after inauguration a shooting ground in a Yerevan outskirt. Although admitting that some progress has been made in the negotiation process, Kocharian said he does not share the optimism of international peace brokers from the OSCE Minsk Group that some sort of a final framework agreement could be signed before the elections. “The negotiation process continues and it has both positive and negative sides,” Kocharian Kocharian’s remarks come after the US co-chair of the OSCE, Mathew Bryza, was quoted by Azerbaijani newspapers last week as saying that Azerbaijan and Armenia could sign a framework agreement next year to resolve their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. "There is a possibility that prior to presidential elections in Armenia, which will take place in the spring of next year, some kind of a %u218gentlemanly’ agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could be signed by the heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia," said Matthew Bryza, who is also a deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state. Kocharian blamed the failure to forge ahead in the peace process on the Azerbaijani leadership and their war rhetoric. “There are threats and we have to take them into account when designing our policies,” he said, as he explained his lack of optimism.

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